Laura Aguilar
@laura.aguilar.fuentes
Jeweller and painter who focuses her work on architecture and the recreation of imaginary spaces.
She tells us that during a trip to Egypt she was fascinated by the buildings in the big cities, especially on the borders, lacking cladding, with blind windows. This led her to a strange feeling of encountering something already known as if she had been confronted with motifs she had drawn herself.
We visited her studio in La Antigua Fábrica de Sombreros in Seville, a renovated industrial space that, till recently, was a squat and today operates as a residence for visual artists, artisans, designers, architects and even has flamenco dance classrooms.
How would you describe your art?
I would say my work is a combination of game and therapy. Normally, I conceive the pieces from dreams or memories and, other times, I use improvisation, starting by drawing one or several lines that shape labyrinth spaces or puzzles that I need to solve.
What does inspire you?
Essentially, places I already know or, as I mentioned earlier, have dreamt about. These constructions, in fact, began by reinterpreting the rooftops that could be seen from the classroom where I studied and continued with a building in the middle of the sea that I tried to climb in a nightmare. I find so interesting the way we get information and how it resonates in our subconscious.
What is being a woman for you?
I don't think I have ever thought about this so directly. For a long time, I didn't identify myself with the stereotypes commonly related to women, to femininity, to the fact of being sensitive (although I am) and delicate (which I am not). It seemed as casual to me to have been born a woman as to have been born in Seville and, therefore, I didn't feel particularly proud of it. However, as I get to know more women, empathising with common social features, similar experiences and a brutal feeling of rebellion in order to break all those clichés once and for all, I can say that for me being a woman means union.
What do you celebrate about being a woman?
Sorority. Sisterhood and mutual support.
A good friend says: "if you want to go fast, travel alone; if you want to go far, travel together". That's what I feel every time I meet a female artist, that we are together, that I'm not alone. I'm lucky enough to share a workshop with two incredible women and, whenever one of them falters, the others are there to support her... and I'll stop here, I think I've got something in my eye.
How do you feel about being a woman in the art industry?
I think, if we talk in political terms, the art industry is in a situation where, sometimes, by trying to support women, we become devalued. A kind of positive discrimination is being generated around female artists, where it seems more important the fact of having female participation than their actual work. I feel we need a real commitment to the research of the thousands of women who dedicate themselves to art and whose work, I believe, is much more than to deserve of being exhibited.
Photos by Mercedes Polo Portillo ©
